- NEW DELHI (AFP) - Indian
Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha has expressed concern at the strong showing
of pro-Taliban and anti-US Islamic radicals in Pakistan's elections, a
report said.
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- The Indian press Saturday also voiced similar sentiments,
warning fundamentalist forces were gaining a grip on power in Pakistan.
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- The Hindu newspaper quoted Sinha, who is in London, as
saying the developments should be noted by the international community.
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- "Despite his best efforts, Pakistan President Pervez
Musharraf, had not been able to control the fundamentalist forces in his
country's policy," the newspaper reported Sinha as saying.
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- Sources in the Indian external affairs ministry said
a formal government reaction was being drafted and would be released on
Sunday.
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- In results until late Friday, the six-party Muttahidda
Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) Islamic alliance had secured 45 seats, or 16.5 percent
of the national assembly.
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- The massive swing to the Islamists, who picked up only
four seats when they contested the 1997 elections separately, followed
a passionate campaign by fireband clerics through western border areas
where anger at the US-led war in Afghanistan runs high.
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- In a front page story on the election results titled
"Pro-Taliban coalition forges ahead on Pak polls", the Hindu
said with the emrgence of the MMA as a "third force, Pakistan's neatly
stitched coalition with the United States in its war against terror faces
a threat".
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- The Asian Age headlined its main story on Pakistan elections
as "Pro-Osama Pak mullah surge", in reference to terrorist mastermind
Osama bin Laden.
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- In a separate editorial, the paper said: "India
will also have to monitor the situation closely, as these Islamic groups
all carry anti-India banners and the hostility might again spill into Jammu
and Kashmir."
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- The paper added that Musharraf's policies "have
clearly fed the fundamentalists' agenda" and that the results will
make these groups more "aggressive and dangerous".
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- "Pervez proxies lead in Pak" said The Hindustan
Times.
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- In a separate box, the paper listed what the results
mean: "Expect no shift in Pakistan's Kashmir policy. Insurgency will
continue. India's case against dialogue will become stronger as India will
now have to talk to a regime of mullahs and generals. Musharraf's promised
crackdown against the jehadis can be declared dead."
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- Copyright © 2001 AFP
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